Life After Death
by xXBalorBabeXx
Summary: Tragedy hits the Vice crew again... but all is not how it seems.
1. Chapter 1

**10/7/17, 1:30AM...**

25 year old Alison Rivera was used to restless nights… but something was setting her sixth sense up to its highest volume.

Ryan opened his eyes, sensing his wife's distress… and reached over, resting his right hand on her stomach. They had just found out about their baby yesterday and hadn't told anyone yet.

"It's too quiet outside… Miami is rarely quiet." Ali says quietly.

"Strange things happen but… you're feeling more than strange." Ryan says.

"Yeah…" Ali says, gripping her phone and dialing Amber's number… but instead of Amber, it was Billy who answered it.

"Ali?" Billy says, sounding horribly shaken and Ali and Ryan sitting up.

"Billy… where's Amber?" Ali asks, digging her nails into the palm of her left hand and Ryan gently stopping her.

"She's…" Billy starts to try and answer, Ali hearing the sticky noise of a hand wiping over a sweaty face. "She's… right in front of me… collapsed across the sidewalk a few feet away from about 6 crashed and torn up cars." He managed to finish.

Ali let out a sharp scream as tears started falling, Ryan taking her into his arms and holding the phone now as Ali cried into his shoulder.

"You taking her to the hospital?" Ryan asks, startled and shaking a bit himself.

"Paramedics are already here in 3 ambulances but… that's only 6 medics and there's at least 20 people injured here." Billy says.

"Damn it!" Ryan growled, lightly rubbing his hand up and down Ali's back as Ali looked up at him. "We're gonna head down there." He says, Billy knowing that the young detectives wanted to help out in any way they could.

"Turn off to the highway near the college is where we are… cops are gonna shut the roads soon." Billy says.

The two hung up, Ryan and Ali getting up and dressed before grabbing their badges and guns. Ryan carefully drove Ali's Pontiac Firebird and stopped it when they reached the accident site before getting out and running to Billy.

"Where is…" Ali starts to ask before seeing part of Amber's bloodstained jacket nearby.

"They took her away…" Billy says, having to muster up some strength to finish. "...in a bag."

"No… no! Damn it, no!" Ali says as she started crying again and trying to push Billy away but he carefully took her into his arms as Ryan called Sonny.

"Hey, kid." Sonny says.

"Uncle Sonny… something's happened. Amber's gone…" Ryan says, Sonny nearly dropping his phone.

"She's… where, what hospital?!" Sonny says, Ryan knowing he'd be in denial and wouldn't accept it until he saw Amber's body for himself.

"North Shore's morgue… she was crossing the street, the driver didn't see her…" Ryan says.

"My baby girl is dead because of a reckless driver?!" Sonny asks, yelling halfway through.

Ali looked up after she and Billy let go, Billy seeing the look in her eyes.

"She would've been an amazing godmother…" Ali whispers, Billy looking at her as he realised what it meant. "Ryan and I just found out… we were putting off telling people right away, we thought we had more time. We were gonna ask Amber to be the godmother." She says.

At the morgue in North Shore when everyone was there, Sonny pulled the sheet back… and lightly brushed Amber's hair back. To him in that moment, it looked like she was just sleeping.

"I've lost too many people in my life… I never thought I'd lose you, I always thought… I could keep you and your brothers safe… I'm so sorry, Amber… I'm so sorry." Sonny says as his tears fell, kissing Amber on her forehead before covering her back up with the sheet.

Rejoining the others, Sonny noticed that Ali seemed to be in a daze as she clutched onto a Styrofoam cup and walked over to his goddaughter. Sitting down, he reached over and tucked some of her hair behind her right ear.

"What are we gonna do without her around? This isn't right… this is supposed to be a happy time in our lives, Miguel and Roni are gonna be parents soon. Amber was looking forward to seeing baby Jack." Ali says, also holding onto a picture of herself, Amber and Brady when they were 4 years old.

"Probably doesn't help much, but… her death isn't going to just bad. Strange timing but only 3 months ago she signed into organ donation… so even now that she's dead, she's still helping someone." Julia says.

Ali nodded, Sonny and Julia seeing her turn pale at the thought of Amber's body being cut open and Julia taking Ali into her arms as Martin and Gina hadn't gotten there yet.

Ali walked outside after a while, letting the rain hit her face after closing her eyes… she didn't notice her parents car engine shut off or hear them until she felt Gina's hands resting on her shoulders and opened her eyes, Gina and Martin seeing that Ali had been crying.

"Ali? What happened?" Martin asks.

"Amber's dead…" Ali says, Gina taking Ali into her arms and Martin resting his hand on Ali's back.

"How… did it happen?" Martin asks.

"Car pileup… sent one off the road and smacked into her, knocked her into the wall… at least… a double impact to the head was a quick way to go." Billy says.

Gina let out a horrified cry, Martin hugging both her and Ali.

Ali felt a brush of cold on her right shoulder that she knew wasn't her parents or Billy.

' _Amber…'_ Ali thought. The cold patch didn't have any distinct outline or shape but the size of it was one she knew, the same size as Amber's hands, small palms with long fingers that would wrap around another hand if she held one.

" _I'm always here, Ali."_

' _I didn't… get to tell you…'_ Ali thought.

" _I know now… and you know that I would have always been the godmother."_

' _I have a feeling it's a boy.'_ Ali thought.

" _Well… you didn't hear it from me."_

After that, Ali turned as she felt the cold patch move away from her.

"Don't go…" Ali whispered.

" _I must… I am already overdue. I'll always be…"_

It was like Amber didn't have time to finish before her presence left the room.

Ali looked out at the darkened, stormy skies as lightning flashed, echoing the somber mood around her.

She never thought she'd lose Amber like this.


	2. Chapter 2

_**9/14/06…**_

 _Amber hadn't been paying attention until she heard screaming and rushed to the alleyway… immediately, her rage took over._

 _She tackled the man attacking Ali and immediately started punching and beating him until he was out cold before turning to Ali, who screamed as her eyes were still closed… until she opened them when she recognised Amber's hands were the ones on her._

" _Amber?" Ali says, her right eye obscured by blood._

" _Yeah, it's me… you needed me and I came, remember I promised that…" Amber says while examining over Ali's injuries._

" _I feel sick… I can't… see out of my eye…" Ali says, Amber picking Ali up and taking her to the old Ferrari Testarossa._

 _At North Shore, Amber had called the others… and after finding out about the argument that drove Ali out of the house, Amber immediately cornered Miguel._

" _You need to fucking watch your temper!" Amber yells after whacking Miguel with her staff._

" _Did he…" Miguel tries to ask._

" _Beat him before he could… but she's scarred for the rest of her life." Amber says quietly._

 **Present time…**

It was morning when Ali opened her eyes again, still in her clothes and in her and Ryan's bed… footsteps made her sit up and she and Miguel hugged, Ali burying her face into her brother's shoulder.

"You need something to eat… come on." Miguel says, helping Ali up and into the dining room of Ali and Ryan's house.

"Does anyone know… what they're gonna do with her after her organs are given away?" Ali asks.

"Same as they do to anyone… pump fluid into her, restore her to as much of a natural shape as they can ready for burial, embalming basically." Miguel says.

"It's not fair… she should still be here." Ali says, Miguel lightly rubbing her shoulders… and noticed an appointment card in Ali's shirt pocket. "Ryan and I were... gonna tell everyone today." She says as the siblings hugged again.

"So it's joyful and ruined together… well there's one way of looking at it. One life ends so another can begin… maybe the little one will have some Amber in her." Miguel says as they let go.

"Maybe… might keep the gender a secret for a while though but if it's a girl… I want to name her after grandma. If it's a boy… I want to name him after Ryan's father." Ali says.

"Good names… I don't think Amber would have been to happy with one named after her anyway. You know how she is… was… doesn't bother with memorial markers, just remembers. Besides, Brady will most likely do that anyway." Miguel says.

"Yeah… should we check in on him? I know he would want some time to himself but I still worry." Ali says.

"He said he was going for a… oh god…" Miguel says, stopping as he worked something out. "Going for some time alone in their boat's hot tub… and at a time like this, all I can think of after that is that was where Amber tried to kill herself when she was 15!"

Ali covered her mouth to muffle a cry and immediately started following Miguel but he stopped his sister… it wasn't just her that he felt he had to protect now.

"Please… make sure he doesn't do it, Miguel." Ali says.

Miguel left and reached the boat, Brady looking up at him through his puffy and tear stained blue eyes.

"Miguel… you know me too damn well…" Brady says, his voice hoarse.

"You remember what we said. If Amber and Ali were like sisters then we must be brothers." Miguel says, pulling and helping Brady out of the tub.

"Everywhere I looked, she was there… I can't remember a time without her…" Brady says.

"Most of us can't… it's not right that she's gone but there's no changing it and killing ourselves certainly won't do any good." Miguel says.

"Where's…" Brady says, looking around for Ali. "Always protecting her… then again, you had no way of knowing if I had a blade or not." He says.

"It's not just her now… Ali and Ryan…" Miguel says, Brady letting a sad smile slip through.

"And Amber never got to see it… never got to know in her life." Brady says.

"I think… she's watching from heaven." Miguel says, him and Brady leaving.

Heading back to the Rivera house, both saw Ali finishing up her breakfast and drinking some herbal tea and they along with Ryan could tell that already, Ali was missing drinking coffee.

"Her… funeral is 4 days away…" Brady says.

"4 days? That's… quick." Ali says, half distantly.

"They did her organ things as soon as we left, about now they'll be embalming ready for it… yeah, it's an open casket one. Tradition down from my mom's side." Brady says.

Ali nodded, setting the white and red cup down and her and Brady hugged.

"I couldn't… the boat's just so quiet now…" Brady says.

"It is… here is quiet too." Ali says as they let go, Ali deciding not to tell them what had happened last night.

Later, Miguel had gone to check on Roni, who was asleep on the couch with a blanket around her but her 6 ½ month pregnant stomach wasn't concealed by it and Miguel had guessed that Jack was sleeping… and then he heard it.

" _I would've loved to have held him."_

"Amber?" Miguel whispered.

" _I can't bring myself to go, Mig… I'm not strong enough."_

"I miss you too… so much. Remember that time you tossed me off the boat because… I was grouchy about the heatwave?" Miguel says quietly, trying not to cry.

" _Oh, there have been plenty of times when you were a right knob… and I was one right back."_

"Out of all the summers in Florida, that one was the most humid…" Miguel says, glancing at a pink eraser nearby.

" _I nearly ripped your finger off when one of those hit me… scared the hell out of Ali."_

"Miguel?"

Miguel turned around and walked over, sitting down next to his wife.

"Did you… hear? About Amber?" Miguel asks.

"Yeah… I still can't believe it…" Roni says, brushing her tears away as she and Miguel hugged. "I thought for a second… she was here earlier." She says as they look at each other.

"There's a child here… an innocent mind she never got to meet. Maybe… there possibly will be a touch of Amber there." Miguel says.

"Jack would've loved his Aunt Amber." Roni says, Jack kicking sleepily.

"He would've." Miguel says.


	3. Chapter 3

Ready for the day, Ali opened the door when she heard a knock… but instead of it being Izzy, Jake Ballard was on the porch.

"You know…" Ali says.

"Course I do… Amber and Britt got on more than you'd think in the end." Jake says.

"Once Britt changed her attitude…" Ali says as the old friends hug. They let go and sat down on the table under the awning, Jake seeing that she was thinking about calling Britt but remembered that Scottie had died a week ago and as far as Ali knew, Britt was out of town with her extended family. "Closer than I'd think… you mean they were sort of secret friends?"

"I wouldn't call them that… just sorta helping each other. Out of character for Amber really… part of me thinks one had something to bribe the other with." Jake says.

"Possibly…" Ali says, Jake handing her a beer and her turning it down. "Bad idea, pal." She says.

"Alison Rivera turning down alcohol…" Jake says.

"As well as caffeine, soda and sushi… I'll miss that last one though, remember that sushi bar you, me, Ryan and Amber found in Key West?" Ali says.

"Yeah and Amber practically lost her guts later that day… ah… sorry." Jake says, stopping halfway through when Ali cringed and Jake knew that the mention of losing guts had shot the organ donations back into Ali's head.

"It's okay… she's helping others in the afterlife…" Ali says, grabbing the mini trash can and Jake holding her hair back as she threw up.

Ali stopped, Jake going and rinsing the trash can out before returning to her.

"I was gonna tell her today… but I think she knew already…" Ali says after drinking some water.

"Damn it… Ali, I need to tell you something, or someone… she's gone and it's just weighing on me. I do know why they were being friendly with each other..." Jake says, sitting down on the nearby chair.

"Why?" Ali asks, turning to Jake, who was struggling to think of how to say it so decided to just say it straight.

"Amber and I had sex." Jake says, Ali stepping back in shock. "We didn't want anyone to know but Britt worked it out, they sorta formed a conditional truce, Britt keeps her mouth shut if Amber acts as a distant guard, whack anyone Britt wants whacking."

"That bitch! Blackmailing my best friend?! Oh I am gonna rip her head off!" Ali yells, grabbing her keys and trying to leave.

"No, your not! Brutal time Ali. If Britt knows you're pregnant by now, you go in yelling at her and the first thing she'll do is smash your belly in with her boot, you know she will!" Jake says loudly, grabbing the keys out of Ali's hand and tossing them across the room.

"She never told me… after losing Maurice, Amber's mind was so scrambled…" Ali says, Jake getting her to sit down.

"That's why it happened really… me and her were more of a comfort thing rather than romantic but she was still just as ashamed afterwards… one of the only things that would get to her was knowing that someone had the means to publically label her as a whore and Britt hit it right on the bullseye." Jake says.

Ali brushed her tears away, Jake carefully hugging her again before he left.

When he reached his apartment, he slammed the door and woke the hungover Britt.

"Damn, do you always have to-" Britt starts to ask as she opened her eyes.

"Ali knows." Jake says, Britt turning angry at him.

"You can't keep your fucking mouth shut!" Britt snarled after she stood up.

"She had a right to know, you were blackmailing someone who was basically her cousin!" Jake says.

"Someone who wanted me to keep my mouth shut when she couldn't keep hers shut!" Britt says in a slurry growl.

"Amber never opened her mouth, when did Amber ever open her mouth?!" Jake asks angrily, Britt's response making it boil over.

"When your cock ended up in it!" Britt yells.

"Ali was right… you're incapable of keeping yourself from inflicting pain. How Alicia and I were ever friends with you, I don't know… but you're not staying here anymore." Jake says, ducking when Britt threw the vase at him.

"You were always weak when it involved little Ali… weak minded, spineless. All you had to do was take one look in those eyes and everything bubbled up!" Britt growled.

Britt packed up her things and left… and Jake started picking up the broken vase, stumbling across a picture of him and Ali when Ali was 5 and he was 8.

"Things were simpler then…" Jake says, feeling a hand on his shoulder. "Amber?" He says.

" _Yeah… I can't bring myself to leave yet, Jake. You and Ali looked so happy then."_

"Do you think you'll… leave at your funeral?" Jake asks.

" _They say that the funeral is when an angel gets their wings… so we'll see."_

"I really hope you do find peace, Amber." Jake says.

 **Meanwhile…**

Ali was absentmindedly looking through a furniture magazine… and when Gina walked over, she noticed a bassinet and crib circled in red.

"Distracting yourself or planning?" Gina asks after sitting down.

"Mix of both… if Britt shows up here, I'm calling Ryan though to have her removed from the property. Jake and Amber… spent one night together and Britt was blackmailing her. Two can only keep a secret if one is dead… Mama, I miss my best friend so much." Ali says, Gina knowing that it had opened up a wound that wasn't even healing and took her teary eyed daughter into her arms.

"I know, baby girl… I miss her too." Gina says as she lightly stroked Ali's hair.

Driving recklessly, Britt ran through three traffic lights before finally pulling over when she heard sirens, looking at the driver's side.

"Oh, of fucking course." Britt says, seeing Billy.

"You were driving like a woman bent on causing hell, Britt. Get out of the car!" Billy says, Britt flipping him off.

"Fuck you, Crockett!" Britt yells, screaming when Billy yanked her out and started cuffing her.

"Amber wasn't entirely quiet, she confessed what happened! And from your current state, I'm guessing Jake couldn't stay quiet either!" Billy says.

"Straight to Ali of all people! Hell, I'm surprised she didn't hunt me down yet, the determined little detective she is!" Britt says, Billy putting her in the squad car after reading the Miranda rights to her.

 **A few days later…**

The church was crowded but everyone was barely talking, Ryan gently squeezing Ali's left hand as she lightly brushed something off of her black dress.

"Are you…" Ryan starts to ask, stopping himself when he saw the look on Ali's face.

"Just need to get through this… then she can rest in peace." Ali says, looking up as the priest spoke.

She noticed something was off though… the casket was closed now when it was open earlier.

"Probably the wind." Ryan says, having noticed the same thing.

It was later on, after the casket had been lowered into the ground and the earth covered over it that everyone was gathered again, Ali noticing that while everyone was gathered, she couldn't see Brady anywhere there.

' _Where the hell is he?'_ Ali thought, finishing her bottle of water before looking outside. "Brady?" She called out, not seeing his car anywhere.

"Ali, what is it?" Jake asks after walking to her.

"Brady was with us at the church… he's not in the house now." Ali says, blinking when she felt dizzy and Jake helping her sit down.

At the same time, Brady was walking along the road from his parking spot, having felt the need to go back to the fresh grave.

"Something wasn't right… Mom didn't want that casket closed." Brady says quietly. Reaching the grave, all did seem okay at first… until he saw that the soil had been thrown across the grass nearby. "Oh no… no, someone better not have!" He says, getting angry as his first thought was that someone had come and dug up the grave once everyone had left… but it only took a few scrapes in with his hand to hit something solid, made of wood…

The edge of the open casket door. Under the earth, it was wide open.


	4. Chapter 4

"Brady, where are you?!" Ali asks after answering her phone, hearing the fast breathing on the other end.

"Ali, Amber's grave is messed with and the casket is wide flippin' open!" Brady says shakily as a thousand thoughts were running through his head.

"She's barely even buried and someone already dug her up?!" Ali yelled.

"I guess so, it's…" Brady starts to say, stopping and crouching down as he picked up a torn piece of the soft, flower patterned golden dress Amber had been buried in. "Ali, there's a piece of her dress on the ground here, the casket is open and she is gone!" He finishes.

"I… I can't believe this, this is just…" Ali says, Jake holding the phone as Ryan comforted Ali.

Brady looked up when he saw a shadow tower over him… his eyes widening in shock.

"You know I absolutely hate enclosed spaces!"

"But… but you're…" Brady tries to say, the girl in front of him grabbing his keys and putting them in his hand.

"Drive me there."

Brady did so… when Ali saw the car, her mouth dropped open and her eyes widened, her voice not obeying her.

"I… have no idea…" Amber says after getting out of the car, her golden dress covered in dirt and her turned half away from Ali with her arms across her chest, her head half down.

"How? We were… just there at the church…" Ali says as she and Ryan stood up and Jake ran to the others.

"I was hit on the road… then I was somewhere else… then I was in a box." Amber says, turning away a bit more as Ali stepped closer, Ali putting that together with the crossed arms and working out that Amber was instinctively being very protective of the deep and long stitches all across her torso… which also reminded her that Amber was stood here with next to no internal organs left inside her, her kidneys, liver, heart and left lung were all gone.

"How is this even possible?" Ali asks, Amber finally looking at her.

"I don't know… all I know is that I just woke up with god knows how many stitches all across my body and about 5 feet of earth above me." Amber says… before gagging suddenly, doubling over and throwing up a clear liquid. "Ah… embalming fluid…" She manages to say between heaving.

Ali, Ryan and Brady helped Amber sit down as they heard footsteps and saw the others.

"Amber?!" Sonny says once he could speak.

"Don't… hug me yet." Amber says, her body shaking. "No heart, kidneys, liver, one lung and hardly any intestines… how am I even able to blink?!" She asks after a few moments.

At North Shore ER, Marty Gretsky dropped his clipboard when he saw them bring Amber in but ran to her and helped her into a treatment room.

"How the hell is this even possible, Amber?" Marty asks.

"I just pulled myself out of my own grave when the last thing I remembered was the headlights of a car, I don't know an ounce… and I'm bloody thirsty." Amber says.

"Thirsty… first thing that happens to a corpse is the fluids dry out…" Marty says before leaving, returning with the needle and bits to draw some blood. Amber hardly even flinched as the needle went in… and no matter what Marty tried, not a drop would enter the syringe. Until, that was, he pulled it out and a small clump of dried up blood was visible at the end. "Amber… your blood is still, there is no medical way for you to be alive." He says.

"Miracles happen…" Amber says, Marty turning to find Ali as the two had the same blood type. "Find Mig and Brady… Ali's pregnant." She says.

"Gonna need a lot of blood…" Marty says.

Time dragged on… but up in the ICU waiting room, Marty found them.

"Is she… still alive?" Sonny asks, remembering parts of what was said about donor organs being transplanted into Amber.

"We tried implanting a heart, a kidney but… they just sat there uselessly and yet she's still alive… I can't explain how it's happening but I can explain what's happening with her body." Marty says, everyone turning to listen. "She's alive, somehow with her brain functioning independently… but her body is halfway dead. Her cells have stopped renewing or repairing… and there's no easy way to say what that means. While she lives, she's still decomposing as she would if she were as stone dead as she should be." He says.

Ali looked into the room, seeing Amber talking to someone who wasn't there… until she realised it.

"How the hell… is this happening to me?" Amber manages to ask, Maurice looking at her.

"Legends of ancient Egypt… once spoke of a girl with the gift of the gods. She would live through impossible circumstances, when no one could speak any certain answer… and she would live until her path was really finished… that girl is you." Maurice says.

"So… I'm alive because of what exactly?" Amber asks, Maurice reaching into her stomach through her skin and when his hand came back out, there was a coin in his palm which was glowing a shining orange.

"They still need you, Amber…" Maurice says, hearing the strong heartbeat of Ali and Ryan's baby. "Nathan Edward needs his godmother." He says.

 **A few hours later…**

Having eaten again, Ali headed down to the police station and into Billy's office.

"I didn't know how else to explain this, what I found… so I'll let the video do the talking." Billy says, Ali walking over and seeing the CCTV video of the accident.

Looking closer, Ali paused the video at the exact moment that a familiar Chevy Camaro ran right into Amber.

Billy knew from the look on Ali's face that this wasn't an accident when she saw through the video footage that Britt's eyes were narrowed at Amber in an evil look.

"I'm already charging Britt with attempted murder." Billy says.

"Skip the trial, take that cold blooded bitch straight to the chair." Ali says.

Billy knew that Ali meant it too… after what they all had been put through, he knew that she wanted Britt to die.


End file.
